The Technische Universität Berlin, known as TU Berlin for short and unofficially as the Technical University of Berlin or Berlin Institute of Technology, is a research university located in Berlin, Germany and one of the largest and most prestigious research and education institutions in Germany. The university was founded in 1879. It has the highest proportion of foreign students out of universities in Germany, with 20.9% in the summer semester of 2007, roughly 5,598 students. The university alumni and professor list include National Academies elections,[6] two National Medal of Science laureates[7][8] and ten Nobel Prize winners.[3][5][9]

In 1916 the long-standing Bergakademie Berlin, the Prussian mining academy created by the geologist Carl Abraham Gerhard in 1770 at the behest of King Frederick the Great, was affiliated with the "Polytechnic University in Berlin". Before becoming a part of the TU Berlin, the mining college had been, however, for several decades under the auspices of the Frederick William University (the present-day Humboldt University of Berlin), before it was spun out again in 1860. After Charlottenburg's adsorption into Greater Berlin in 1920 and Germany being turned into a Republic, the college became eventually known as the "Polytechnic University in Berlin". In 1927 the department of Geodesy of the "Agricultural College of Berlin" was incorporated into the "Berlin Polytechnic". During the 1930s, the redevelopment and expansion of the campus along the "East-West axis" were part of the Nazi plans of a Welthauptstadt Germania, including a new faculty of defense technology under General Karl Becker, built as part of greater Hochschulstadt university grounds in the western Grunewald forest. The shell construction remained unfinished after the outbreak of World War II and Becker's suicide in 1940, it is today covered by the large-scale Teufelsberg dumping. The north section of the main building of the university was destroyed during a bombing raid in November 1943.[15]

TU Berlin Architecture Building in May 1968, with banners in protest against the adoption of the German Emergency Acts

Due to the street fighting at the end of the Second World War, the operations at the "Polytechnic University in Berlin" were suspended as of April, 20th 1945. The planing for the re-opening of the school began June, 2nd 1945, once the acting rectorship led by Gustav Ludwig Hertz and Max Volmer was appointed. As both Hertz and Volmer remained in exile in the Soviet Union for some time to come, the college was not re-inaugurated until April, 9th 1946, now bearing the name of "Technische Universität Berlin". In general, the name is not translated into other languages. The English term Berlin Institute of Technology is a semi-official translation which was established as a compromise in 2007. Nevertheless, the intuitive translation Technical University of Berlin remains the most common (although not official) name for the university in English, with the possible exception of the native German description (and of course the short form of TU Berlin).

Telefunken-Hochhaus, the tallest building on campus, with a bird's-eye-view cafeteria on floor 20.

The TU Berlin covers ca. 600,000 m², distributed over various locations in Berlin. The main campus is located in the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. The seven schools of the university have some 28,200 students enrolled in more than 50 subjects (January, 2009).[16]

El Gouna campus: Technische Universität Berlin has established a satellite campus in Egypt to act as a scientific and academic field office. The nonprofit public-private partnership (PPP) aims to offer services provided by Technische Universität Berlin at the campus in El Gouna on the Red Sea.[17]

8,455 people work at the university: 331 professors, 2,666 postgraduate researchers, and 2,145 personnel work in administration, the workshops, the library and the central facilities. In addition there are 2,719 student assistants and 130 trainees (March 2010).[18]

The new common main library of Technische Universität Berlin and of the Berlin University of the Arts was opened in 2004[19] and holds about 2.9 million volumes (2007).[20] The library building was sponsored partially (estimated 10% of the building costs) by Volkswagen and is named officially "University Library of the TU Berlin and UdK (in the Volkswagen building)".[21] Confusingly, the letters above the main entrance only state "Volkswagen Bibliothek" (German for "Volkswagen Library") – without any mentioning of the universities. Some of the former 17 libraries of Technische Universität Berlin and of the nearby University of the Arts were merged into the new library, but several departments still retain libraries of their own. In particular, the school of 'Economics and Management' maintains a library with 340,000 volumes in the university's main building (Die Bibliothek – Wirtschaft & Management/″The Library″ – Economics and Management) and the 'Department of Mathematics' maintains a library with 60,000 volumes in the Mathematics building (Mathematische Fachbibliothek/"Mathematics Library").